Mr. Speaker, in April 1999 the federal government started requiring Canadian residents to report their foreign assets.
This was a ham-fisted way of trying to reduce tax evasion. It has not worked. In fact, it has discouraged many immigrant investors and has done nothing for compliance. People are moving from resident to non-resident status, thus paying no taxes at all. This threatens to take as much as $1 billion out of the B.C. economy.
Therefore, tomorrow I will send a letter to the Ministers of Finance and National Revenue asking them to commission the auditor general to conduct a cost benefit analysis of the foreign asset disclosure rule.
I hope that the ministers and auditor general will respond quickly.